Alex Dickerson back in camp, expected to make full recovery

The Padres' Alex Dickerson holds up his bat as he and other players bat in the batting cages on the first day of Padres spring training with a full squad at the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Ariz.

The Padres' Alex Dickerson holds up his bat as he and other players bat in the batting cages on the first day of Padres spring training with a full squad at the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Ariz. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

After being diagnosed with a disc protrusion this week, Alex Dickerson will miss opening day and an unknown period of time beyond that. Doctors have prescribed three to four weeks of rest before the Padres left fielder is re-evaluated.

For Dickerson, the news was maddening and, to some extent, reassuring.

“It’s a little bit of a relief,” Dickerson said of learning the cause of his back trouble. “Obviously, not happy with the start I got to the season this year, but it’s a good to have a guideline and go off that. The doctor’s very optimistic that I’m going to make a 100 percent recovery after this thing. It just needs rest.”

Due to lower back stiffness, Dickerson, whom the Padres hope will be a prominent part of their outfield, did not make his Cactus League debut until last weekend. On Sunday night, his back flared up again, prompting a visit to a spine specialist in San Diego. Dickerson on Thursday returned to the Peoria Sports Complex, where he will be on full rest for a couple weeks before he begins core-strengthening exercises.

“It’s just been irritating me now for probably a month, and I basically just never gave it the full time to rest,” Dickerson said. “I was pretty active because I was trying to come back, and just didn’t really give it that chance to heal. Right now, being told ‘hey, you need to heal this’ I think makes it a little easier on me.”

Dr. Neel Anand, an orthopedic spine surgeon and director of spine trauma at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said disc protrusion is fairly common, even for people in the same age range as the 26-year-old Dickerson.

“It’s not uncommon for young people to have back problems or flare-ups,” Anand said. “Sometimes it’s really not an injury. It’s just a flare-up.”

According to the Laser Spine Institute, a disc protrusion, also known as a bulging disc, is a degenerative spine condition that occurs when one of the discs between the vertebrae “has been compressed and, as a result, protrudes out of the natural alignment of the spine.”

Some people, Anand said, may have a disc protrusion without knowing it. Symptoms manifest when the protrusion impinges on a nerve, causing the discomfort most patients feel.

“I had a similar issue in high school,” Dickerson said. “It cleared up eventually and was perfectly fine for 11 years. This is the first incidence I’ve had since. ... From the looks of it, it’s not a huge bulging disc. Just enough that it’s got a little bit of inflammation.”

Anand agreed with the course of action the Padres are taking with Dickerson.

“The right thing to do is to give it some rest, let it calm down,” Anand said. “The recovery rate is very good. It’s very rare that it becomes persistent. … Ninety-five percent of the time it goes away. That’s the good news.”

Said Dickerson: “Surgery isn’t even on the docket for it. To me, that tells me it’s an issue that’s going to be resolved.”

Long-shot option

According to a report by the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Diamondbacks have demonstrated a willingness to listen to offers on shortstop Nick Ahmed. The Padres, sources say, previously have expressed interest in Ahmed, but it seems unlikely that the D-backs would trade him within the National League West, especially to a team now managed by Green, Arizona’s former third base coach.

One source said that the Padres made inquiries regarding Ahmed in 2015. Veteran outfielder Matt Kemp’s name was brought up in conversation, but those talks never developed into anything of significance. Last July, the Padres jettisoned Kemp to Atlanta in what was essentially a salary dump.

Sources indicate that the Padres, who also moved most of their other veterans, are in no rush to thin out their recently reloaded farm system. Still, their search for a long-term solution at shortstop continues. San Diego has looked at other trade possibilities this offseason, including Detroit’s Jose Iglesias and, according to FanRag Sports, Cincinnati’s Zack Cozart.

So far, however, no match has materialized. Sources say Travis Jankowski has been discussed as a potential trade chip, but with Dickerson out indefinitely and Manuel Margot also less than 100 percent, the Padres are likely to hang on to the young center fielder for now. Jankowski won’t become arbitration-eligible until 2019, and the club likes his upside.

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